


Deleted File

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Banter, Didn't Quite Manage a Donna Haraway Reference, Discovery, Dystopia, Friendship, Gen, Identity, Secrets, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 04:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2800139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kennex is keeping a secret from Dorian, and Dorian plans to figure it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deleted File

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thevina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thevina/gifts).



Kennex looked over at Rudy.

“We can’t tell anyone,” Kennex said pointedly.

“We certainly can’t,” Rudy said. 

“Can you make sure none of these files ever get read?” Kennex asked.

“That’s the beautiful thing about paranoia. Dr. Vaughn was so secretive that he made sure that none of his digital files were on any machine connected to a network.”

“So, all we really have to do…”

Rudy nodded. “Is to destroy the building.”

“Let’s call it in as a biohazard. We’ll say we need to incinerate the building before any homeless kids wander in, and we can’t wait for the annihilation team.”

“What should we use? I could possibly improvise some device to crush matter hard enough to change its molecular structure. It might take some time, though.”

“I was thinking matches.”

“Oh. Yes, the building is isolated enough that it would pose no danger to nearby property. We could light the fire and when everything is destroyed, we could employ the nano-extinguishers to put it out,” Rudy agreed.

Kennex half-nodded at Rudy and then called Dorian. “We need to evacuate, Dorian. Meet us by the car. I don’t care what’s here, this is life and death. Meet us in one minute.”

“How should we tell him?” Rudy asked when the call was done.

“We don’t,” Kennex said, making it clear that it was an order.

“Why not?” Rudy, of course, treated orders like they were hypotheses. (Not that Kennex had the right to order Rudy to do anything, but that was neither here nor there.)

“I know him better than you do,” Kennex said.

“Really. Do you know how to repair his air compressor unit?” Rudy asked as they began covering the room with flammable coating.

“You know what I mean. He shouldn’t know.” 

“And why is that exactly?” Rudy answered.

Kennex sighed, then paused and looked at Rudy. “Dorian deserves better than to carry this secret. Or do you disagree?”

Rudy paused. “That was quite manipulative.”

“And?”

Rudy sighed. “Fine. You’re his partner. If you think he can’t handle it….”

“He shouldn’t have to.”

Rudy frowned but nodded. “All right.”

\--

Dorian was unusually quiet on the ride back to the station. Normally, Kennex would have enjoyed the silence, especially with Rudy in a separate vehicle. But Kennex was preoccupied.

“Something on your mind, John?” Dorian finally asked.

“No. I mean. Yeah. I was thinking about this movie I saw as a kid. Robots try to take over the world. A human leader totally kicks their ass. Because he’s way smarter than they are. I mean, I’m not trying to say that the whole movie is an allegory for you and me or anything.”

Dorian smirked. “Wow. If that’s your attempt at a distraction, you must really not want me to know what happened with you and Dr. Lom.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that what you just said was a very poor attempt at a distraction. Because if I could be distracted by you acting like a dick, this partnership would have never gone anywhere.” Dorian smiled at him sweetly. 

Kennex rolled his eyes. “I think it’s debatable if it has.”

“Of course it is. So what’s going on between you and Rudy?” Dorian pressed.

“Fine. You caught us. Lom and I involved in a torrid love affair. He brings me roses every day. I call him schnookums. He takes erotic pictures of me wearing nothing but giant silk butterfly wings on my back. We’re planning to elope in June.”

“That’s ridiculous, John. All evidence suggests that you are not Dr. Lom’s type.”

Kennex snorted, then said, “Wait, _that’s_ the only thing you found ridiculous?”

Dorian just smiled. “If you don’t want to tell me what you and Rudy were discussing before you arrived at the car, that’s okay. Just say so.”

Kennex stared straight ahead at the road. “Fine. I don’t want to tell you.”

Dorian was quiet for a moment. Then: “But you should really tell me why you want it to be a secret.”

Kennex gripped the wheel in frustration. “Look, Dorian. Do you trust me or not?”

Dorian tilted his head. “Of course I trust you, John. That’s why I let you burn down a building full of valuable evidence even though I detected no biohazards whatsoever.”

Kennex was speechless for a moment.

Dorian prodded again. “You can tell me, or I can try to figure it out on my own.”

“Yeah. Well, if we find another top secret base of Dr. Vaughn’s, which is just so extremely likely, then go for it,” Kennex said, voice dripping in sarcasm.

“Okay. If that’s how it is.” He was smiling a knowing smile at John.

Kennex frowned. “It’s just – it would be better for everyone if all that equipment was destroyed, okay?” 

“That equipment that was used to make androids like me?”

“No. I mean, that's not why it needs to be ...gone.... I just really need you to let this one go, buddy. Will you do that for me?” He looked over at Dorian.

Dorian paused. “I don’t know if I can do that, John. You just destroyed the warehouse that probably could have answered almost all my questions. About who I am and why I’m … like me. Why I'm not like the others. And I _trusted_ you enough to do that, even though it hurt like hell watching that building burn. So you need to trust me enough to tell me why.”

“Why should I trust a machine?” Kennex said, clearly desperate to start an argument to avoid the topic.

“I don’t know. Same reason I trust a grouchy, undersexed, argumentative jackass, I guess.” He smiled at Kennex to soften the words.

“Yeah, yeah. You know you’re just Maldonado’s way of punishing me for mouthing off, right?” Kennex said.

“And you’re just a test to see if I'll malfunction. They figure that if anything could turn someone from my series into a raging murderer, it would be spending every workday with you.”

“… That actually would be a pretty decent test,” Kennex admitted.

Dorian laughed, and Kennex smiled back.

Dorian didn’t ask his question again that day.

\--

A few days later, Kennex waited at the intersection where Dorian had asked to meet him. He wasn’t sure why they couldn’t go to their usual bar, but he had a suspicion.

Dorian came over to him and nodded south, and they started walking. When they got to a patch where they were alone, Dorian said, matter-of-factly, “So. I’m a cyborg.”

“How did – Okay, I am going to kick Rudy in the ... shins,” Kennex grumbled.

“Why didn’t you want me to know?” Dorian asked.

“It was creepy to hear about,” Kennex said with a shrug. “Brain cells of dead people, being carried around your whole body."

"That's why I have those repressed memories. You know I've been wanting to know why. And sure, it's concerning, but those are what allow me to feel emotional pain, what allows me to crave deeper meaning in my life, to struggle to be a better person." 

"You mean all that crap that most people spend their whole lives trying to drink away? How does it help you to know that?”

Dorian stopped walking. “Are you serious, John? How does it help me to know who I _am_?”

Kennex grimaced. “I… It's complicated. You know that… cyborgs... you know.”

“Cyborgs are illegal,” Dorian said. He sounded… testy.

“Yeah.”

“And as a cop, you have a problem with illegal things?” 

“No,” John objected, then rolled his eyes. “You know I don’t think that.”

“Considering how much police property you've intentionally damaged, obviously not. It puts you in a difficult spot, though, protecting a cyborg,” Dorian said, clearly still testing him out.

“You know that’s not it. Of the ten thousand ways you’re difficult, this has nothing to do with any of them.”

“My identity has something to do with who I am, I’m pretty sure,” Dorian said. 

“I didn’t want you to have to carry that knowledge, Dorian.”

“I thought you kept it secret because it’s ‘creepy.’”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I’m creeped out too. Dozens of people’s biomatter, wandering around my body. It’s pretty weird, John.”

“Everyone has the genes of dead ancestors in them, technically,” Kennex said with a shrug.

Dorian smiled finally. “Is that really how you think of it?”

“I don’t know. I just, I thought it would be better for you not to know.”

“Why?”

“… I guess I didn’t want it to change… how you see yourself.”

Dorian paused. “It doesn’t. I mean, it does, it means I’m more than what I thought. I just don’t see that as a bad thing.”

“…Good.”

“John?”

“Yeah?”

“Does it change how _you_ see me?” Dorian asked, looking concerned. “Is that what this is really about?”

“No.”

Dorian kept staring. “Why do you think cyborgs are illegal? Why do you think people say that cyborgs are monsters?”

Kennex sighed. He leaned against a nearby wall. “Honestly? I think people are scared. They see machines basically taking over. The human body is the last thing that isn’t run by computer, and people think if they lose that, they lose it all.”

Dorian nodded thoughtfully. “You know why I think people say cyborgs are monsters? I think it’s because people want a clear border between humans and machines. A wall to keep everyone in their place. And if you let AIs mix with bio, and that border isn’t there, it isn’t so obvious that human beings are people and machines are property. You have to start asking tough questions about why androids don’t have human rights.”

Kennex listened, then nodded. “I see what you mean.”

“And it’s kind of funny. In a way.”

“Funny how?” Kennex asked.

“Funny that there’s no need for the powers that be to get all worried about people like me,” Dorian said, voice uneven. “There are already plenty of human beings who get treated like property. Who get disposed of like property. We find plenty of them on the job. So even if they recognized my humanity, they could still treat me like I’m nothing.”

John frowned. “Hard to argue with that.”

“It’s just, ever since I found out, I’ve been thinking a lot about humans, AIs, cyborgs. All of us, how much we have in common. But how different we are, how amazing that is, in a way.”

John smiled. “I’m glad you feel that way.”

Dorian narrowed his eyes. “You weren’t worried that I would be disgusted with my cyborg self. Were you?”

“Of course I was.”

“John. I swear, if you lie to me right now,” Dorian said, shaking his head, biting his lip in frustration.

John rolled his eyes. “If you have to know, I was afraid of this.”

“Of what”

“… You’re pretty vocal about the fact that you want to be treated like a human.”

“Shouldn’t I be?” Dorian said.

“Of course. But like… sometimes you just have to tell a bureaucrat that you don’t have free will and all you do is do your job unquestioningly. I have to play that role too sometimes, don’t get me wrong, and yeah, I suck at it. But….”

“You were afraid that I would tell people I’m a cyborg?”

Kennex managed to look Dorian in the eyes. “I was afraid you’d do something that would get you put down. For good. I was afraid you’d tell everyone you're a cyborg and just demand that people accept you for who you are. Because you're one of the crazy ones, remember? You do things like that. And, I mean, I admire that about you. I do.”

“It scares you that I advocate for my humanity?”

“No. No. I just – you know what they do to cyborgs, Dorian. Is it so wrong that I was fucking terrified?” 

Dorian relaxed a little. “No. I understand. And honestly, you’re right. I would be tempted to come out and say, look, I’m me, look at all the good I can do if you give me a real chance. I know you think that’s wishful thinking.”

“That’s dangerous thinking. They will come down on you, Dorian.”

“But I won’t do that,’ Dorian continued pointedly. “Because of the others in my series. They’re working, leading fulfilling lives, and I won’t say anything that would hurt them.”

“…Oh.”

“But you were right that I’d be tempted. And if things change enough, yeah, maybe some day I’ll tell people. But not any time soon.”

“Okay. I’m – I’m sorry for wanting you to, you know….”

“Totally hide who I am to pander to discriminatory notions?”

“Yeah.”

“I accept your apology. I see why you did it. But you really should have told me right away about Dr. Vaughn’s files.”

“Yeah. I also should have told you that if you ever do something idiotic like stand up for your beliefs, I’ll be there. Calling you idiotic. But having your back.”

Dorian grinned and patted his shoulder. “Yeah, John. I know that about you. And I know that from you, calling me idiotically principled is the highest possible compliment.”

“Yeah, well, good, don’t expect any other compliments any time soon.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. I have several compliments stored up for you. One on the size of your liver, one on your choice of attire, one on your charming personality, one on--”

“That’s enough flattery for today,” John said, laughing. 

Dorian laughed too, then said, “John. I know you were trying to protect me. But from now on, we deal with new info together.

“Yeah. You’re right. And I’m never going to say that phrase again, so, you know, enjoy it.”

“Oh, I am, John. I am.”

They looked at each other, and laughed again. John did his best not to look like he was still worried. 

**Author's Note:**

> Definitions:
> 
> A cyborg is often defined as a being with both machine and bio-organic parts or aspects. An android generally does not have any biological materials as part of her/his body.


End file.
